Albert Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Desired results may come from certain behaviors and decisions. If you want different results, then you have to behave differently. It is very easy to understand when it comes to organizations as well as business decisions. After all, in that kind of realm of activity, you will build some sort of emotional distance.
However, all bets are off once we start applying that idea to our personal lives. It becomes uncomfortable all of a sudden. Why? We must unfortunately face the reality that there are certain things in our lives that we are fundamentally unhappy with. There are many areas of our lives that we feel stuck in or, if not, frustrated with.
Some parts of our lives may even feel downright uncomfortable or, worse, painful. Given how all of this hits too close to home, it's easy to come up with all sorts of excuses. It’s easy to blame our childhood. It's easy to blame other people or situations beyond our control.
But let me tell you, the more you blame things, situations, and people out of your control, the more you train yourself to become powerless. You think that if somebody is truly responsible for what happened in your life, then they can fix it. They caused it anyway, so they are responsible, not you. Pretty logical, right?
Now, if you are blaming other people who are beyond your control and cannot be compelled to take positive remedial action, what will happen then? You will just train yourself to believe that you are hopeless. There is no fix possible. There is no solution because those things are under other people’s control in situations beyond your reach.
Do you see how frustrating that is? Do you see how this leads to a life of powerlessness, weakness, and decay?
Thankfully, there is a better approach. And that is, change your mental habits. Just because you respond negatively almost automatically doesn’t necessarily mean that you can't change it. It is a choice. Your mental habits are choices. If you change these habits, you start feeling better and taking positive action.
As you probably already know, the world doesn't care about your feelings. All it cares about are the things you do. So, when you change your mental habits to the extent that your actions have also changed, you get better results.
That's how you claim your success. That’s how you win in life. That's how you take ownership. Otherwise, you would feel like you're stuck in a pit where, regardless of how hard you try, the past always has a hold on you and continues to drag you down. That is not a life of victory but a life of a victim. Know the difference.
Comments ()